Rain
Oziandra "Rain" Thropp, Princess of the Arjikis (also known as Oziandra Osqa'ami and Rainary Ko) is the daughter of Liir Thropp and Candle Osqa'ami who was born at the end of Son of a Witch. She later appears in Gregory Maguire's Out of Oz, where she is the protagonist. Appearance Rain was born green, like her grandmother Elphaba, suggesting that the green-gene runs maternally as do most things in Oz. Her appearance being a dead giveaway to her ancestry, Liir had her magicked to look like a regular human of "uncertain origin." Life Birth and Hiding She was born at Apple Press Farm in the Shale Shallows of the Vinkus. In order to protect her from the Emperor's forces, who were hunting for her family, Candle took a bundle of rags, which she passed off as a baby, and left Oziandra behind for Liir to find. After washing her off, Liir discovered she had "cleaned up green". While wandering with her, Liir and Candle meet a serpent who has the power to change skin tone. It is decided that Rain would bear her father's pale skin tone, which was the same as the majority of the population of Oz. Liir then gives her to Glinda to take care of. Glinda appears to have taken care of Rain, to a degree, under her early years, though Rain herself doesn't realize this until she is older, but once Rain reached a certain age, she was left alone, living as a part of the scullery staff, ignorant of her heritage or even her true name, at which time she chose or was given the name "Rain" The Restwater Conflict When Rain is 7 or 8, Commander Cherrystone commandeers Glinda's home, Mockbegger Hall, to use as a base against the Munchkinlanders. Rain is among the staff who is not dismissed and begins to serve Glinda personally. In this position, she encounters Cherrystone, who takes an interest in her and begins to tutor her in reading. In the process, she is able to bring small bits of information to Glinda. She is drawn to the Grimmerie, which she says is "alive", and makes the spell ''To Call Winter Upon The Water ''appear from within it. When the situation at Mockbegger becomes dangerous, Glinda asks her to assist her in casting the spell in order to freeze the Restwater, trapping Cherrystone's war dragons. Glinda then sends Rain with the company of the Time Dragon Clock. Traveling with the Clock Rain is welcomed by her aunt, Ilianora, and Ilianora's husband, Brrr, but is disliked by Mr. Boss, the company's leader. This becomes worse when the Clock breaks down, before saying she should be avoided. Nevertheless, she manages to become close to Ilianora and Brrr. The group travels through Munchkinland, Gillikin and the Vinkus and reach Quadling Country. Shortly after reaching the jungles surrounding the Quadling lands, Rain encounters strange creatures she refers to as "spiders", who try to get into the Clock, but vanish when it is opened. While going further into the country, she is mistaken for a rafiqi, or guide, because of her Quadling features, which allows them safe passage through the country. While in the capital of Qhoyre, Rain befriends a group of river otters who had taken up residence in the city, and they follow her out afer the group departs, much to the pleasure of the Qhoyre residents. Rain adopts one as her pet, naming it "Tay". She also acquires a pink conch shell which becomes her prized possession. After staying in the country for an unstated amount of time, the group leaves and goes through the poppy-infested Sleeve of Ghastille. While there, Rain and the Clock are attacked by the "spiders" again, which Ilianora witnesses, though she is protected by the otters, who all flee afterwards save for Tay. After this, they encounter Brr's old ally, Muhlama Ha'ekeem, who leads them to an old stone outpost called the Chancel of the Ladyfish. At the Chancel and Nether How At the Chancel, Rain is reunited with her parents, though she appears to be uncomfortable with them at first, and also meets Iskinaary, who she takes a disliking to. After being informed of the return of Dorothy, the group sets out for Munchkinland, but after some deliberation, it is decided that Liir and his family will not go, due to the danger his claim to the Eminenceship would cause for him. For this reason, Liir, Candle, Nor, and Rain settle in the Vinkus, at a place called Nether How and build a house for themselves. Rain lives there for about three years, becoming closer to her family. It comes to an end one day when Iskinaary informs Liir about the bounty out for the Grimmerie and the possiblity of the Emperor wanting to find Rain. The family then leaves and seperates; Liir and Candle head for Kiamo Ko, while Nor takes Rain to Shiz and enrolls her at St. Prowd's, a seminary school, in order to protect her identity. At St. Prowd's Under the alias of Rainary Ko, Rain settles into St. Prowd's, befriending a scullery maid named Scarly, whose room in the cellar she is given, and who she begins to teach to read. Rain has difficulties with her schoolwork at first, but improves gradually. After causing a huge incident at the school's Lurlinemas banquet, Rain is punished by being moved from the cellar room to the boys' dormitory, which is emptied due to the need for soldiers of the war, and rumored to be haunted. One night, she hears someone coming through her wardrobe and sees it is a boy. The boy eventually tells her his name: Tip and the two befriend each other, and he begins living in her room. Slowly, Rain begins to adjust to school life and befriends a few of the girls, including Miss Plumbago, the granddaughter of Commander Cherrystone. Her time at St. Prowd's comes to an end when word comes in that the Munchkinlanders may attack Shiz and that they may have gotten their hands on the Grimmerie. She attempts to warn the school's proctress, Ironish Clapp, and is locked in her room when she criticizes Ironish for not taking the threat seriously. Tip, however, anticipates this and frees her, and the two of them leave the school. Kiamo Ko Rain and Tip make their way to Kiamo Ko, making a few stops along the way. Upon arriving at Kiamo Ko, Rain is greeted with the news that Liir and the Grimmerie were captured in a raid, that Nor had died after falling from a cliff and Candle had left to find Liir wherever he might be. Rain remains at Kiamo Ko, meeting Nanny and Chistery, who tells her she is the one who is meant to save everything. Rain does try to arrange a plan with the others, but not much progress is made. It is not until Tip leaves Kiamo Ko to investigate Mombey's involvement in Liir's capture that Rain finally takes action, deciding to go to the Emerald City to find Liir. On the road to city, they encounter the Ozmists, who they pose questions to as is custom. After the conversation, the Ozmists point the group in the safest direction to Emerald City and agree to come to Rain's aid if she blows her shell. Emerald City Once arriving in the city, Rain and Dorothy go to see the Emperor. After getting into the throne room, Shell ignores Rain completely, only focusing on Dorothy. Dorothy tries to convince, and then threaten, Shell to hear Rain's issues, but they are interrupted by the sudden attack of La Mombey and her army of dragons. Rain and Dorothy flee the palace and Rain blows the conch shell. The Ozmists appear, though slowly, and begin protecting the city from destruction, while Rain reunites the rest of the group. While they wait for the situation to recover, they begin giving aid to the people injured in the attack and Candle arrives. After five days of assault, La Mombey enters the City, bringing Tip and Liir with her, and Brrr arranges for Mombey to release Liir. It is also revealed that the spiders Rain had mentioned as a child are beings controlled by Mombey. Rain attends the surrender proceedings, but hides out at Brrr's order in an unseen portion of the room. When Mombey's delegation arrives, Tip finds Rain and they have sex while the delegation takes place. Mombey reveals that Liir is trapped in the body of an elephant and casts the spell To Call The Lost Forward to return him to his true form. However, the spell fails and Liir begins to die, causing Rain to run out of her hiding place and blows the shell again, summoning the Ozmists. The Ozmists fill the room, and in the process, transform Liir back to his human form, reverses the cloaking spell on Rain's skin and reveals Tip's true form as the long-lost Ozma Tippetarius. Rain stays asleep for days and when she awakens, she is called for an audience with Ozma. They have a brief conversation and more or less end their relationship. In the weeks after, Rain meets up with Glinda once again, who helps her recover some memories from her early childhood and tells her that she'll be going to Southstairs for a while, though Rain herself later lets her out. After this, Rain uses the Grimmerie to send Dorothy back home and returns with her parents to Nether How. Out of Oz After a year, Candle leaves Nether How, much to Rain's sadness, and Rain buries the Grimmeire, marking the spot with Elphaba's broom, which sprouts a tree of magic brooms. She waits for Ozma to contact her and writes a treatise on government to send to her and Brr. One day, she has a conversation with the serpent who had placed the cloaking spell on her skin and then decides to leave, having accepted that Ozma would never contact her. Taking the Grimmerie and a broom, she flies away across the deserts. At one point, she become dehydrated from the desert heat and passes out. However, she is found by Iskinaary and they continue on until they arrive at the sea. Rain then takes off on her own again, with the plan of abandoning the book in the sea and continuing on until she's sure she's out of Oz. Her ultimate fate is left up to chance, with the possibility of her either returning home or settling somewhere new. Category:Characters of Wicked Category:Thropp Family Category:Book Exclusive Characters Category:The Wicked Years Category:Protagonists